Contrary to popular belief, most of the American founding fathers: 1. Were NOT freemasons 2. Were NOT deists 3. Were NOT jewish 4. Were confessional Trinitarians They also established blasphemy laws and restricted public office to those who professed the divine revelation of the Old and New Testaments. One founding father, Philip Lowell III, was an Orthodox Christian convert from Anglicanism. John Paradise, Thomas Jefferson’s tutor, was Greek Orthodox. Are there problems with America’s founding? Yes. Nobody is denying Her baptism is necessary. But like our own baptism, we retain the good things already implanted in us. The same is true for this great nation! “Salvation is communal; it is not individual. And you come to the Orthodox Church in America, not to become Syrians, not to become Romanians, not to become Russians or Bulgarians. Be yourself, American. Otherwise, God doesn’t accept your experience, because you have a tradition, you have a background that is given by God. God made me to be born in the Carpathian Mountains; I cannot be other. For me, Orthodoxy is the experience of the Romanian peoples in the Church. We come into the church, not as isolated individuals; we come with our families, with our nation, with our culture. Sanctify and transfigure your culture. There are many good things in this country. Be good patriots.” - Fr. Roman Braga